Complexes of Platinum Group Metals with a Conformationally Locked Scorpionate in a Metal–Organic Framework: An Unusually Close Apical Interaction of Palladium(II)

We report synthetic strategies for installing platinum group metals (PGMs: Pd, Rh, Ir, and Pt) on a scorpionate-derived linker (TpmC*) within a metal–organic framework (MOF), both by room-temperature postsynthetic metalation and by direct solvothermal synthesis, with a wide range of metal loadings relevant for fundamental studies and catalysis. In-depth studies for the palladium adduct Pd(II)@Zr-TpmC* by density-functional-theory-assisted extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy reveals that the rigid MOF lattice enforces a close Pd(II)–Napical interaction between the bidentate palladium complex and the third uncoordinated pyrazole arm of the TpmC* ligand (Pd–Napical = 2.501 ± 0.067 Å), an interaction that is wholly avoided in molecular palladium scorpionates